Guest List by Julie C. Gardner

Author:Julie C. Gardner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: love triangle, love and friendship, family life, best friends forever, best of friends, coming of age friendship, letters and essays

Corie

My entire life, I’ve hated telephones. Both landlines and cellular. I’ve always been afraid of talking on them so Ma used to make me call for restaurant reservations or to ask how late a shop was open. It would’ve been easier if she or my dad had simply placed the call themselves, but they knew I needed practice; that communication via telephone was a life skill I’d entered this world lacking.

On the phone you have to think on your feet, whereas with writing, you get to plan what you want to say, carefully on your own time. In a text or a letter or an email, I can work at my words, shift each one, make them bend to my will. I win battles this way, with myself and others. I don’t like being ambushed.

Nevertheless.

I’m bent over my desk with a dust rag and a bottle of Windex when the knock knock knock comes at my door. Before I can ask, “Who is it?” Renata Howe pokes her head into my classroom.

“Reny. Wow.” I set down the Windex, and a lump rises in my throat.

“Hola, Corie,” she chirps. Her lips stretch wide.

“It’s been a long time,” I say. A decade, I think.

“I can’t believe you’re teaching in Señor Ortega’s old room.” Her tongue rolls the Rs, and her white teeth click. “So. Cómo estás?”

“Muy bien.” I take a breath.

“I’m not interrupting, am I?”

“No,” I tell her. “Just cleaning up after a long, dirty summer. Getting ready for the new school year.”

Reny peers at the posters in the entryway. Hamlet. The Inferno. “I love what you’ve done with the place.”

I nod. “Come in. Have a seat.”

She moves toward me, craning her neck. It’s too dark in the room. When I arrived this morning, I left off three of the four sets of fluorescent lights. Not because I was trying to save the environment; I just didn’t want anyone to know I was on campus. Reny takes a seat in one of the two plastic chairs opposite my desk. Her pigtails are gone, and her hair is smooth. She keeps it pasted behind her ears now. She looks pretty. And uncomfortable.

“I flew in from Arizona yesterday,” she tells me. “For the reunion.”

I nod again.

“Thought I’d stop by CHS today to say ‘hi’ to some of the old teachers, but hardly anyone is here. Guess they’re still in denial about starting soon?”

“I guess.”

“I did see Mrs. Dresden, though. I can’t believe she hasn’t retired.”

“No. Not yet.”

Reny pauses, but I say nothing more. “Now that I’m in town,” she continues, “I’m relieved I’m not in charge of this whole reunion thing. Usually they ask the class vice president, but I guess they hired someone local this year.”

“Kate Turlow.”

“Right.” Reny’s mouth curls at one edge. “She graduated before us, didn’t she? I think her cousin was in our class. Zach something or other. I might’ve dated him.”

I nod one more time, a puppet with a single move.

“I guess Kate’s a professional party planner, which, as I said before, is good.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.